With ND rapporteur Maria Syregela to emphasize that the marriage equality bill is yet another reforming step of the Mitsotakis government and to point out that with its passage Greece becomes the 37th country to introduce it into national lawthe discussion of the relevant bill began in the competent parliamentary committee.

As he mentioned Ms Syregela, this is done without extensive interventions, but only with the highly necessary adjustments to the Civil Codein labor and social security legislation, summarized in 15 articles, with the sole purpose of ensuring access to the institution of civil marriage for all Greek citizensregardless of sexual orientation and to protect the self-evident interests of a democratic society of children raised in families of same-sex couples.

Watch the debate of the bill live in parliament:

During her introduction, clarified “what the draft law does and does not do”. and regarding the first section of the points it regulates, he noted that: Firstly, it introduces equality in civil marriage, that is, access to the institution of civil marriage for all Greek citizens, without discrimination, and regardless of sexual orientation, and secondly, it protects the interests of of children by regulating family law issues in families of same-sex couples.

As for the points that the draft law does not include, the ND rapporteur made it clear that the draft law does not extend the right to medically assisted reproduction and surrogacy to male couples and makes no reference to “parent 1” or “parent 2”, “since to us clearly parent meant, means and will mean only father and mother”, as he said.

“But what is it that worries us so much? That now if a child is raised by a same-sex couple and the recognized parent dies, the child will not go to an institution or to distant relatives, as is done today, but will remain in his family, with the person who is the child’s other parent his, but for the law and society today he is invisible?”, he wondered and continued by asking the questions which the legislation answers: “It should not be when a child lives with a same-sex couple and the unrecognized (until now) parent dies, the child not to be deprived of his inheritance rights? When a child lives with a same-sex couple, shouldn’t the (as yet) unrecognized parent be empowered to make decisions about their education and health, be able to care for them if they go into hospital? When a child lives with a same-sex couple and the couple divorces, shouldn’t the unrecognized (until now) parent have maintenance obligations for the child and be able to participate in its upbringing?”

“Because the bill aims to regulate these legal relationships and these situations that exist in our society”he added Ms. Syregela, giving at the same time the answers for the issues regulated by the bill.

“With this bill we are adjusting an existing situation. We set a framework, one protective net especially for children. A man or a woman can adopt alone. And they can live together or make a cohabitation agreement with whoever they want and raise the child together. Therefore, we are now lifting the carpet, bringing this murky situation to the surface and establishing institutions with the equality of citizens and the protection of children as the foundations of the discussion”, concluded the ND rapporteur.